The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1887-04-02
The CONSrIrUF ON.
Hon. :. u. WiHiamSou'S Plea fer a
OIIVentirE.

AMI regrel that We hive lot room Ia
pu lish il in fail While il received
a m prny ON the hoal vote. yet it.,
mcApda few votes Of receiving ,noush
to npcome a law, lht republicans and
three acknowledgements wing aSainsff
it. Our senator made noble fight
for it.
MIR, Speaker: ] hope | will not he
treSpassng unnecessarily nphf the
time Of The senate ii | shall offer some
suggestions upon the matter now pend
ing. Ii is strange that hill with the
title ot the one under consideration
should meet with any opposition at
all from the direct representatives OF
the people. This is bill which M,
thori1es the people to csll COnstitu>
tional Convention. The people of
tennessee will never have Nh 0pp0r-
.unily 10 call convention to form n
new or amend the present CoDstitn-
ton of he state Unless the legislature
should see fit to authorize them to do
80. This illustrates how much power
the legislature has in this matter, aud
Is IL suggestion 10 them that they
should not abuse the exercise OF that
power ~ too grea" an eSlrut Some
4
of the members of I've legislature
have suggested that they j" not con>
slider this an oppnrtune ilma 10 cali n
convention This iSa question, Mr..
Speaker. with which TIE legislature
has nothing To do, whencVr: there is
a demand from the people (as un-
derstand there isl that they shall he
allowed to express their will Oh tins
question. 1t is for them to decide
! whether they will call convention.
The General Assembly has nothing to
do but to fix the time for the election
and The convention, it called. And
this brings to mind suggestion. that
was struck with Il few days ago
from the "Old man Of the mountains
| (CoI, Savage, who is always cham
piOning those measures which tend to
bring about the pureSt form OF dem,
Ocralic government His idea was
that the constitution should contain a
provision that at stated p,riods, say
ten Or fifteen years, the people should
vote upon the question OF changing
the organic law of the state If they
should think proper; that whatever
evils should arise in the interim they
could always look forward to such
time fixed by the constitution when
they could exercise their rights as cit
izens and free men without having To
ask the legislature to "authorize" OF
permit them to do so. This would
be their year of jubilee, when all their
wrongs could he redressed.
Mr.. Speaker, ! believe there is a
general demand all over the state Of
Tennessee for such bill Ms this
among the masses of the people. ]
know that in my vn county it ia al.
most, it not quite, unanimous The
attention Of the people was called to il
in my canvass, and when they saw
how that by oh angling the constitution
in lew important particulars 81 large
Nh amount Of revenue could he saved
to them, they became anxious that
the changes should he made.
There are several changes which
might he suggested that could With
advantage be made in the fuudament,
al law of the state. Without going
into particulars, | would suggest thai
there could I've some very advantage
Gus changes made in our Judiciary
system. | believe that it is to the in.
terest of the people to have as little
litigation as possible, and when they
do become involved in it to end it II,
soon rs possible, especially where the
litigation is over small sums and in
significant matters; aud to this end
believe that the constitution should bt
50 changed that the Supreme Cour
would not have appellate jur;sdictior
of any civil suit where the sum in
) volved is less than $3.50. MANY 1
poor man who brings a suit agains
the rich, or against Il corporatiq
which does not care for the expendi
ture If money, is compelled TO ahan
don his case, or make HI unprohlahl,
csmprsmise. rather than go to the ex
pense of following case To the Su
preme Court, and he subjected to tn,
cost aud delay incident to appeals il
such cases.
Another very important change e
the people Of the state IL to so amend
the provisions or the constitution tina
we woui have fewer elections thar
r we now have. All of the officers o
the state, without perhaps any excep